LitPick Review
Rocky Road by Rose Kent is about Tess Dobson and the changes and impacts on her life. Originally from Texas, moving to New York is really exciting for her, at least until she finds out she's moving to Schenectady, New York, not New York, New York. Tess's Ma has these spells that Tess calls Shooting Stars. She's up, all happy-go-lucky and blowing money like no tomorrow, and then she's crying so hard she can't get herself out of bed. Moving to Schenectady, New York was the up part of another episode of Shooting Stars. She wanted to open up an ice cream shop. They had mostly zero money, other than the Ditch Fund, as Ma called it. Ma vowed to only use money out of the Ditch Fund if she really had to, and that's how she bought A Cherry on Top, her mother's ice cream shop. But her business isn't the only thing having troubles. The family's having trouble, too. It's a good thing they have plenty of ice cream, because the Dobson family motto is, "Ice cream warms the heart, no matter what the weather." But, whenever Ma wants to talk to Tess's little brother, Jordan, they can't even understand each other, mainly because Jordan is deaf and communicates using American Sign Language (ASL). Through it all, though, Tess realizes that life has its ups and downs, and it reminds her of her favorite ice cream flavor, rocky road.
Opinion:
My opinion on Rocky Road was that it was fantastic! Rose Kent did a great job of making me feel that Tess was real because of the emotions that Rose gave Tess. She felt love, anger, and, most of all, stress. The voice of the author sounds like she is a real twelve-year-old. It is in first-person narration, and it was very convincing. I would most certainly recommend this book to others because some people may be able to relate to this book, being that it sort of revolves around financial issues.
